Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/87



INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. 57

reputation for patriotism,, special knowledge^ and adminis- trative aptitude.

The elder Lopez has been carefully portrayed by Dr. L. Alfred Demersay C^^Histoire physique, economique, et poli- tique du Paraguay."^ Paris, 1864. Vol. ii.) He is also known by the work of Colonel du Graty. English readers and writers mostly take their opinions from Captain J. Page, late United States Navy (" La Plata, the Argentine Con- federation, and Paraguay ") : upon the spot it is considered the best authority. Mr. Charles B. Mansfield, whose gene- ral crotchettiness merged into an absolute enthusiasm for Paraguay, has left sketches and descriptions of the Guardia, of the hide-hammock, and of the first of the Presidents. The woodcuts of Messrs. Page and Mansfield make him hideous, burly and, thick-set, as Dictator Francia was thin and lean. With chops flapping over his cravat, his face wears, like the later George IV., a porcine appearance, which, however, as in the case of Gibbon, is not incompatible with high intellect. On the other hand. Colonel du Graty presents a stout but respectable looking citizen. He generally received strangers sitting in an arm-chair, pro- bably to conceal the fact that one leg was shorter than the other, and he wore, honoris causa, his hat, which was a little cocked on one side. At times he would astonish visitors by his courtesy in asking them to sit down in the presence.

President Lopez I. married in early life D. Juana Paula Carrillo, who was almost as fat as himself. The issue con- sisted of five children. Francisco Solano, the actual President, said to have been born at Asuncion in 1827,* was the eldest.

General of the Army." This would make the date of his birth 1832, and his present age thirty-seven. But if born in 1832, he could hardly have commanded a corps d'armee in 1845. It is well known that his birthday was July 24th, and Augustus-like, he caused July to be styled "the month of Christian Lopez."
 * In 1852, Mr. Mansfield calls him a "young lad of twenty or so, the